Follow up and follow through

While slowing down and smelling the roses will help you build relationships —, following up and following through will deliver results.

Last month, I talked about living in the moment, taking the time to appreciate and thank people, and build stronger relationships. I also talked about my own penchant of running through life having barely a moment to follow up and follow through. Is this you, too?

Do you spend a fair amount of time blogging, writing articles, speaking at seminars and conferences, commenting on LinkedIn, Twitter, or your web site? Excellent! Do give interviews and place ads? Nice! Do you take prospects out for coffee, lunch, and dinners? Great job!

Do you ask yourself whether it’s all worthwhile? Do you have evidence that your efforts are delivering results? Did you set up ways to monitor and measure the impact of your efforts (the follow up) and then act on them (the follow- through)? I am sensing . . . not!

I feel great when I finish one of my monthly columns. But I feel even better when I check out how many views, comments, likes, and feedback I get. I ask my editor how many people visit my column and I re-distribute it through my Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. I compare month to month the numbers and engagement of my readers and analyze what topics were more popular, more controversial, better written,m and then take that learning forward to write the next column to try to improve on the last one.

My business objective is to engage readers so that they find value in Canadian Lawyer, continue to visit it, and also notice the advertisements so that people get paid and everyone is happy. That is my job and success doesn’t end when I submit my work.

Your success hinges on retaining your existing clients and bringing in new clients and new matters. Marketing initiatives for you, when you write articles or do lunches, are about making yourself familiar and favourable to potential clients. After reading your work and hearing you speak, you need them to remember your name and believe you have the knowledge, know-how, and people -skills to do their work.

It would be wonderful, if your potential clients would remember your name when they needed the type of legal advice you can give them. This doesn’t happen very often. What you can do, though, to keep your name and legal expertise at the top of their minds, is to create ways for you to be able to detect their need and then remind them of you and your available services. You have to follow up and follow through.

Following up

In today’s digital world, there are so many ways to monitor and measure marketing initiatives. While it may take some effort to figure out how to do that, the real payoff is discovering the people who were interested in your words and ideas.

Go through your likes, comments, clicks, views, and page prints, and identify the people who would most likely benefit from your services and seem the most in need of them. Create ways for people to have to register their name with you. Don’t give your expertise away for nothing.

People who are genuinely interested in your areas of law will go through the trouble of filling in their name and e-mail address if you ask them to. Those who do not want to probably don’t really need your services anyway. Make people give you their business card in exchange for your full speaking notes or PowerPoint slides.

Following through

Now that you have identified some potential business prospects, go get them. Follow up. Phone, e-mail, respond to comments, and make yourself available for a quick chat and probing of their needs. If they don’t need your services at that moment, diarize them and try again in the future. Then follow up again. And again.

Less is more

Being rigorous and routine in your follow up and follow- through is far more beneficial than churning out a bunch of marketing initiatives that are never monitored, measured, and used to deliver on clear business objectives. Fewer Less marketing initiatives and more following up and following through, will deliver more results.

Free newsletter

The Canadian Legal Newswire is a FREE newsletter that keeps you up to date on news and analysis about the Canadian legal scene. A separate InHouse Edition is delivered on a regular basis, providing targeted news and information of interest to in-house counsel.